CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Malaysia has now developed English to become the language of knowledge and
most of today’s reading materials are written in English and a lot of learners who
learn English as second language are required to gain information from various
field of knowledge through medium of written English no matter its for education
purposes or for leisure purpose. Many Malaysian students have major difficulties
with English reading comprehension even after years of learning English language.
Students who struggle with reading tend to place more focus on the “surface
aspects of reading, use fewer comprehension strategies, tap less into background
knowledge, and have more limited vocabularies” (Orosco, de Schonewise, de Onis,
Klinger, and Hoover, 2008, p. 16). Struggling readers often “fail to link new
information with prior knowledge or monitor their comprehension of what they are
reading” (Narkon and Wells, 2010, p. 2). This often results them in facing
difficulties in finding employment or a better job or even studying abroad in future.

English being second language is a big challenge to be acquired by the

pupils especially those who has less exposure to the language and have less
opportunity to practise it. This is what the pupils from
SekolahKebangsaanKemLokKawi have been facing. These pupils have very little
knowledge on English by looking at the pupils’ social culture and to learn English is
not an easy task with such an environment, which does not support their learning.
These pupils solely depend on their English teacher in order to acquire English
language
 Furthermore reading is a compulsory skill to be taught in all primary and
secondary schools in Malaysia. As stated in English Language Curriculum, (2000)
the skill of reading a variety of texts will enable learners to adjust the speed and
style of their reading to suit the purpose and extract both implicit and explicit
meaning from the text. Therefore reading skills is still one of the most important
aspects to be taught in schools in order to enable the learners to grasp the
meaning from the reading text. This is what the pupils’ of Sekolah
KebangsaanKemLokKawi, Penampang have been facing difficulties in. Therefore a
proper guide has to be given to these pupils of SK KemLokKawi to improve on their
reading comprehension skills.

As we know reading is not a mechanical process but rather a meaning

contrasting activity where readers need to utilize their linguistic, cognitive,
metacognitive and sociocultural resources when they break the code, understand
the meaning and interpret the written text (Delbridge, 2008). Most of the students
have experienced a breakdown in reading comprehension because they have
inadequate prior knowledge, misunderstanding word meanings, acquire limited
vocabulary and misinterpret writer’s ideas. Moreover learners are expected to read
difficult texts as they move on. The texts are found more complex to comprehend
as they move on one level to another. These days contains of the reading text are
in various genres and subject matters which are very challenging for the students
to understand. Formally reading skills was taught for the instructional purpose and
students are only exposed to narrative, expository and descriptive genres but these
days’ students are expected to read a variety of text, which differ in context and
readability.